In an apparent about-turn, health authorities in Trinidad have confirmed Barbados did provide Port of Spain with 2,000 doses of the Indian-made Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 to kickstart its vaccination campaign.
On Wednesday, Minister of Health Terrance Deyalsingh when questioned by a journalist about whether the vaccines were donated by Barbados declared they were a gift from the Indian government which then used Barbados as a conduit for vaccine donations across the Caribbean.
Deyalsingh was quoted in the Trinidadian media as saying: “No, no, no, no… The Government of India made a gift to the region, using Barbados as a central depository. From that, we got 2,000.”
But in a correction issued last night, the Ministry of Health in Port of Spain admitted the vaccines were in fact donated by Barbados.
The statement said: “The Minister confirms that the 2 000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were, in fact, a gift given to Trinidad and Tobago from Barbados. This was generously provided from the stock of vaccines that the Government of India provided to Barbados for their use.
“The Minister of Health was unfortunately misinformed and apologises for this error. The Minister also offers his deepest gratitude to the people of Barbados for this kind gesture of regional collaboration.”
Notwithstanding the apology, Opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar called for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to fire Deyalsingh immediately.
Persad-Bissessar said: “If we are to believe the Minister of Health that he did not know the source of the vaccines his own ministry administered to front line workers, he is clearly incompetent and unfit for his job. It perhaps also explains the shambolic manner in which the Keith Rowley regime has bungled the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
But in an official response Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley dismissed Persad-Bissessar’s call as “pure mischief.”
Dr Rowley further stated: “As all CARICOM countries are busily engaged in positioning ourselves to obtain vaccines from a turbulent pandemic market environment, we in Trinidad and Tobago are careful to obtain and accept vaccines ONLY from sources which have WHO approval and certification. This is for the protection of our population.
“It was in this situation of constant regional communication that Prime Minister Mottley of Barbados indicated to me (not the Minister of Health) that Barbados was offered 50,000 doses of a vaccine from India and that she was making a gift gesture of 2,000 of these doses available to Trinidad and Tobago for “essential persons” (including PM and Cabinet).
“I accepted the offer knowing that not all suppliers of these products from India had received WHO clearance. I anticipated and it did come to pass that by the time we got the items and waited a while, the WHO only recently certified the source supplier in India and thus we were able to use these vaccines, not on the Cabinet, but on our frontline health caregivers.”
Last Tuesday, Barbados received 100,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine as a gift from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Mottley has indicated that more than 8,000 doses have been donated to Guyana, Belize and other Caribbean neighbours.
Dominica also received 70,000 doses of the vaccines separately and has shared them with other OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) countries.
